The Lost Days Of Hogwarts
by Bethtext974
Summary: Harry potter has no Family, no home, and now no girlfriend. Retaking his 7th year at Hogwarts has already gotten off to a bad start, little does Harry know that his luck is about to change. When Harry decides to befriend Draco he discovers things about him self and Draco that will change his whole perspective on life.
1. Chapter 1 - Off to Hogwarts

**Chapter 1** \- Off to Hogwarts

"Well, I honestly didn't think i'd be back here again!" Ron said as Harry, Ron and Hermione boarded the Hogwarts express.

Harry Potter couldn't quite believe that after everything he and his friends had been through last year, they were being given the chance to retake their final year at Hogwarts. As they wandered down the train looking for an empty carriage, Harry couldn't help but look at everyone around him. Many forlorn faces passed him as students from all years greeted their peers and grieved the loss of their friends. Even now, Harry could remember perfectly the horrors of the last battle between him and Voldemort; how many of his friends perished; Fred, Lupin, Tonks, Lavender, Snape and so many more, it became hard for Harry to stand up straight. One face he noticed as he passed had his head bent down at the far corner of a carriage so Harry couldn't see his face, but he could recognise that bleach blonde hair anywhere. Harry couldn't help but mutter under his breath as he passed, "Bastard!" Just loud enough for Draco Malfoy to hear before he disappeared from sight.

"What did you expect Ron? They couldn't just send us away with no NEWTs and expect us to make a living!" Harry heard Hermione snap, as they reached an empty carriage near the back.

Ron sauntered into the carriage and spread himself out across one side as he replied: " I know that, but I just figured McGonagall would be too upset to reopen the school, let alone agree to be the new head mistress, I know I would be." Hermione and Harry came in after, and seated themselves on the other side, Harry resting his head against the window pane watching the trees pass.

Harry was beginning to have the same feelings as Ron. As they chugged along, Harry began to feel worse and worse as if his body knew that in a few hours time he would be back at Hogwarts where utter catastrophe took place. Although Hogwarts to Harry felt like home, nothing could penetrate the awful feeling that another year at Hogwarts meant something bad was just around the cor-

"-Harry, what do you think?

"Huh?" Harry said coming out of his stupor to find both Ron and Hermione staring at him expectantly.

"I said, have you decided which classes you're taking this year?" Hermione asked again.

Harry processed the question, then replied: "I haven't really thought about it much but i guess I still want to be an Auror, so I probably wont change anything, why? Are we usually allowed drop studies midway through NEWTs?"

Hermione explained, "Usually, no you can't but given that this is our second attempt at 7th year, McGonagall announced in the paper that if students wish to, then they can drop subjects due to the stress and anxiety caused last year. I was just telling Ron that rather that putting myself through hours of pointless subjects just to prove i'm smartest, I've decided to drop the subjects I least need and go into muggle studies."

"Why do you want to go into muggle studies?" Ron said.

"I've been around wizards for 7 years, and although it's been great, I've grown away from my parents and the muggle world. Hopefully muggle studies will help me to have the best of both worlds." Hermione countered

With an outraged look on his face Ron suddenly cried out: " Oh no! When my dad finds out about this, we'll never hear the end of it!" Hermione burst out laughing and a small smile played on Harry's lips as once again he left the conversation and returned to his thoughts.

…..

Harry stayed like this until the sun slowly began to set over the horizon letting him know that they were very close to Hogwarts. Looking over at Ron and Hermione he discovered them cuddled up on one side of the bench fast asleep. Harry got up and stretched, then decided to change into his school robes; as he left the carriage, he immediately stumbled across the last person he wanted to see. Ginny Weasly. Harry has spent all of his summer holiday at the Burrow, with the whole Weasly family, which unfortunately made their relationship very difficult. Harry reminisced over how close they used to be, but since Fred's funeral nothing had been the same. Ginny had told him that she needed some space to clear her head and to focus on other things which almost broke Harry. After they had been through so much, he couldn't cope with losing her. As the weeks went by they grew further apart, and things became much more awkward between them, so Harry was almost relieved when it was time for them to go back to Hogwarts.

Looking at her now, Harry felt the urge to run up to her and crush her with a hug, letting his fingers get tangled in her long ginger hair, on the other hand he also felt like bolting back to his carriage before she saw him. He could almost smell her soft flowery shampoo from where he was standing. Suddenly she looked up and spotted him by the door. Slowly she walked up to him, a guarded look on her face.

"Hi Harry."

"Hey ginny, you okay?"

"I'm fine Harry, did you want something?

"I was just going change into my robes, and I wanted to see how you were."

"Right. Harry, I feel like you're following me around like a lost puppy, everywhere I turn your there." Harry felt like he'd been slapped in the face. He couldn't believe that Ginny had said that.

"Ginny, I know you don't want anything to happen between us anymore, but that doesn't mean I don't want to be friends, this, us, it's killing me. If we're going to be seeing each other around school I want us to be on good terms."

"Oh Harry!" Ginny sobs. "It's not that simple! When I look at you all I see is what we used to be like, and how we can never have that kind of relationship again. Of course we can still be friends, I just don't think we can hang out as much as we used to." Harry could see small faces peering out of other carriages at this point. 'Just like old times" he thought, knowing that this argument would spread around the school like wildfire.

Harry had had enough of this conversation, " Fine, if thats what you really want." Then he carried on down the train to find somewhere to get changed.

When he emerged, there was chaos all along the corridor. Harry didn't realise how late it had gotten, it had already gotten dark and he could see the twinkling lights of the castle in the distance; everyone around him was frantically trying to gather up their stuff ready to get off. Realising he'd better get back to his carriage, Harry began to push past people to get to Ron and Hermione. However, a few steps later Harry found him self sprawled across the floor. Harry had been walking too fast and accidentally tripped over a bag left lying in his . As he was getting up, a smooth delicate hand appeared helping Harry to his feet. Harry was about to say thank you, when he noticed the green rim around the Hogwarts robes. Looking up further he could see bleach blonde hair slicked back, pointed green eyes, a small angled nose and what should have been a mouth curled into a smirk, but in reality was just an ordinary shaped mouth. Had Draco Malfoy just helped Harry?

" Are you okay? Draco asked.

"What?" Harry replied in astonishment.

Draco repeated: "I said are you okay?"

" Um, yea."

"Good" And with that, Malfoy sauntered away as if their small encounter had never happened.

Harry stood there for a few minutes completely astounded before carrying on to his carriage. When he arrived, he vaguely noticed Ron and Hermione look away from their packing to see Harrys stricken face and give him an odd look.

"You okay mate? Whats happened?" Ron asked.

The train suddenly came to a stop so all three of them began to depart their carriage and follow everyone out of the train. Deciding not to mention what just happened, Harry told them about his encounter with Ginny instead. While Ron and Hermione mulled over this conversation, all Harry could think about was Malfoy. Questions swarmed in his head. Whats wrong with him? Why was he less of an ass than usual? Did it really happen? All Harry knew for sure was that something had happened to Malfoy during the great battle, something that had changed him. The only problem was, Harry didn't know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, only time would tell.


	2. Chapter 2 - The Feast

Hey Guys. So this is the first Fan fiction story i've ever posted, so I hope i've done okay. Please let me know what you think. I won't be offended, as long as it's the truth.

A quick note, the time I wait in between each chapter upload will depend on how popular my story is, i.e, if you like it, tell me and il try and upload chapters faster. Happy reading.

 **Chapter 2** \- The feast

Harry, Ron and Hermione, all sat down on a bench at the Gryffindor house table in the great hall, getting ready for the sorting hat to put all of the new first years into their houses. Harry looked up to the main table at the front and grazed over the professors sitting there. He could see Hagrid off to one side taking up a large amount of space as usual, professor slug horn was on the opposite side of the table downing a glass of mead, and getting ready to pour another. Right in the centre of the table was the biggest chair, to signify where the head master sat, where Professor Dumbledore should have been sitting, but now belonged to professor mcGonagall. However, the seat was empty. For a moment Harry wondered where McGonagall was, until he spotted her in her usual seat right next to Dumbledore's chair. Respect for McGonagall rose out of harry like a blooming flower, as he realised that she had left the chair empty because it would never really be her chair, and in doing so kept the memory of Dumbledore alive through all of the students.

A ringing sound echoed through the great hall silencing everyone, and at the same time, the doors at the end of the hall burst open, and professor Flitwick entered the hall carrying a crusty old hat, and following behind him a small group of shivering first years.

"Hey Harry" Ron said, "you remember when that was us down there? I hope we didn't look that pathetic!"

Harry laughed inwardly and paid closer attention to the hat which was now sat on a stool at the front of the great hall. Everyone waited in silence, then all of a sudden sound erupted from the hat in the form of song:

"Once again you bring me out,

To sort you into four.

This new year, without a doubt,

I'll leave you waiting no more.

We have Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw,

The colours yellow and blue.

Then Slytherin and Gryffindor,

One of these of which il choose.

Now the danger's gone, I can safely say,

There's no more need to complain.

Voldemort's dead, and we got our way,

So Hogwarts will rise again."

Cheers erupted from the student, as for once the sorting hat's song, gave everyone some hope that this could be a good year. Once everyone settled down, the sorting proceeded and soon after Gryffindor table had acquired 12 new students.

"I wish the sorting hat wouldn't take so long, i'm starving" Ron said, just as a wide array of food appeared across all four tables.

"Trust you to always be thinking of your stomach Ronald!" Hermione replied giving him an amused look, whilst also digging into the crispy roast potatoes.

Harry himself was still riled up about the events that happened on the train, so didn't really feel like eating, but even so, piled his plate high so Ron and Hermione wouldn't question him. Instead of eating Harry was staring past the Hufflepuff table and the Raven claw table, at the Slytherin table where Malfoy sat also not eating. Harry couldn't help but wonder why Malfoy looked so down. His usual crowd still gathered round him but he did nothing to engage himself into the conversation.

All of a sudden, Malfoy looked up, and looked right at Harry as if he could sense that harry was staring. Pretending that nothing happened Harry tried to join in with what Hermione was saying.

"- all i'm saying is you need at least 4 NEWTs to even have a chance at getting a job next year, you can drop Potions if you really want to, I know I am, but I strongly suggest you don't drop Transfiguration as well."

" Woah, Woah, Woah, did I just hear you say your both dropping Potions?" Harry couldn't believe what he was hearing, after all these years together and they wanted to split up?

" I'm sorry Harry, I would keep it if I could but I really want to focus more on muggle studies, i've been told that the new professor isn't very good so i'm expecting to do lots of work to keep up. Also potions really isn't one of my strong suits and I really don't need it.

"Yea i'm sorry too Harry but I'm not smart like Hermione, I need all the help I can get, so I'm going to drop as many as I can. I was never any good at potions anyway." When Ron and Hermione finished talking they both looked down as if they were dreading the look on Harry's face.

" I can't believe it, who am I going to talk to now!"

"Hey, you can always make friends with Malfoy, I'm sure he'd love that" Ron Burst out laughing at his own idea, and Hermione tried not to laugh at first but ended up giggling into her pumpkin juice.

"I flippin' hope not! I've had more Malfoy than I can take already!" Harry realised that he had referenced their awkward conversation on the train and immediately shut up.

Ron and Hermione looked at each other with questions in their eyes but didn't say anything. Harry pretending to be annoyed with the two of them turned round and attempted to look at Malfoy again. He was still sitting doing nothing with that grumpy expression on his face. 'What was his problem?' Harry thought to him self.

As soon as the food disappeared, they all got up and began guiding people to the Gryffindor common room where they soon went to sleep ready for lessons the next morning. Harry couldn't help but lay awake for a while mulling over all of his thoughts. He thought of ginny on the train and how weird she as acting, and then of Malfoy and how he was acting even weirder. Was it Harry? Was he the reason why everyone around him was acting strange? These thoughts kept him awake a little while longer but eventually the tiredness of the day dragged him down into a deep pit of darkness where he stayed until the next morning.

…

When Harry awoke, he couldn't quite remember where he was, then all of a sudden all of his thought from the previous night hit hime like a hammer, which shocked him awake. He was at Hogwarts once again, with Ron and Hermione, nothing will go wrong.

Harry woke Ron up, then got dressed and they both made their way with Hermione to the great hall for breakfast and the handing out of the time tables.

"I'm so exited to see my new timetable! Aren't you guys exited?" Hermione exclaimed as they watched Professor Mcgonagall slowly make her way down the table.

"Ecstatic!" Harry replied somewhat sarcastically. He was almost dreading his timetable. Harry knew that he wanted to become an auror so in order to do that he couldn't afford to drop any of his subjects, unlike Hermione and Ron.

The three of them watched as McGonagall eventually made her way down to the 7th years and began to sort out their timetables.

"Right then, Granger, what have we got here, okay I see you have a very busy timetable this year, do you want to keep this going?"

" Professor, if its all right, i'd like to stop Potions and defence against dark arts classes, those are my worst two subjects and i'd much rather use the time improving my other studies." Hermione finished her plea with a sheepish glance at McGonagall's face to guess what she was thinking.

" Are you sure Hermione? I'm sure you could cope with all of them if you put your mind to it?" The professor, looked slightly worried at first but once Hermione said she had thought it through, Harry could see her face relax slightly.

Moving on to Ron, she altered his timetable so Ron would be dropping Potions and Herbology, leaving him with a good number of NEWTs left to study. Finally it was Harry's turn.

" Okay Potter, lay it on me, which subjects will you be dropping?

McGonagall looked skeptically at Harry while he replied: " I'm going to keep them all Professor, I still want to be an Auror." The Professor looked him up and down for a few moments, before leaning in so only Ron, Hermione and Harry could hear her.

"Good on you potter! You'll make one hell of an Auror someday." As she walked away to the next person, Harry couldn't help but feel a bit overwhelmed. That must have been one of the nicest things she had ever said to him, and if filled him with a big ball of courage for whatever might face him.

As an afterthought, Harry peered round at the Slytherin table, and found Malfoy looking over, staring daggers at Harry. Immediately Harry turned away. What was that about? Harry thought. The thought came and went as Hermione and Ron both began chatting to him about their timetables.

" Guess what Harry, We've got a double free period first thing this morning! How lucky are we? What've you got?" Ron asked as he looked down at his time table.

Harry glanced down at his own timetable, the first lesson of the day, Potions - Double. "Great, I have double potions, have fun without me you lot, I can't believe your ditching me."

Harry was already not having a good day, and by the looks of his timetable, it was only going to get worse. He just hoped that Slughorn would go easy on him.


	3. Chapter 3 - Potions

**Hey Guys, Thanks to those people who wrote a review, it's good to know that people like it! Again, please do write a review, if you have any questions let me know and i'll try and answer them. I plan to upload the first few chapter quite quickly to get the story going but as it progresses i'll wait a bit longer between each chapter, to make it last longer. Happy reading! :)**

 **Chapter 3** \- Potions

Harry trudged down the flagstone steps as he made his way to the potions class room. 'I can't believe they've ditched me!' Harry thought to himself as he turned the corner and waited by the potions door. After they had finished breakfast, Hermione and Ron bade him good bye then went off together and Harry turned and walked the opposite way towards the dungeons. By now there were other people standing near Harry, though none of them were his friends; everyone stood around him, every now and again glancing up to look at him, clearly talking about him. Was this what it was going to be like now? Everyone staring at him and talking about him? Just when he couldn't take it any more, Slughorn's voice echoed around the dungeons: "Enter!"

Harry walked in and sat down at a table near the back. The last time he was in this room with Professor Slughorn he had been a potions genius, but now he had come clean to Slughorn that he learned most of it from Snape's old potions book. Harry could still remember the look on Slughorns face when he realised his star pupil was no more than an average student: a mixture of horror, sadness and disappointment. Now, sitting at the back of the class rom, Harry tried not to make too much eye contact.

"Now, this year, the potions we will be studying are extremely difficult, so before we get started I would like each of you to pair off; you will stay in these pairs until the end of the term." Slughorn finished speaking just as stools were pulled back where people were moving around the dungeon to find their partners. Harry who no longer had a friend in potions remained at the back until everyone else was paired off.

Slughorn looked up once the noise had stopped and surveyed everyone in their pairs. "Excellent, right… Oh, Harry my boy, it seems you've been left on your own, no matter, i'm sure-

"-Sorry i'm late professor," said a voice from the doorway. Harry looked round to see Draco Malfoy waiting by the entrance. Dread filled Harry. He could not believe that this was happening.

Slughorn's face brightened, "Ah Mr Malfoy, so nice of you to join us. There we go Harry, Draco why don't you take a seat next to Harry over there, I was just telling everyone that you will be paired up for at least the first term"

As soon as Slughorn said this, two pink spots appeared on Malfoy's pale white cheeks. Draco Malfoy was blushing, Harry was sure of it. As fast as they appeared, the pink spots vanished from his face and were replaced with a calm and collected expression. Malfoy sauntered over to the back and dumped his bag on the table sitting as far away from Harry as he could.

"Now then, can everyone get their advanced potions books out? Today, to start off with, in your pairs I would like one of you to produce a hiccuping potion and the other to create the cure for hiccups. This may seem like an easy potion but it is vital that you work together with you partner, as you need to know exactly what goes into the hiccuping draft at what time to know what to put in to the cure and when. So you have the remainder of this lesson to finish. Off you go." Slughorn, started a stopwatch at the front of the class room and moved to his desk where he remained all lesson.

Harry took all of his equipment out of his bag and set it out on the table, then he took out his advanced potions book; he had to purchase a new one before arriving at Hogwarts so there were no more notes in the margins. He then turned to Malfoy: "you want the potion or the cure, Malfoy?" He wanted to sound more menacing than he actually did, but received the desired effect when Malfoy flinched ever so slightly.

"You take the potion Potter, its easier, and i've heard you need all the help you can get!" Finishing with a sneer Malfoy turned to his own bag and began taking equipment out.

Of course Malfoy would know about Snape's book, he spent the better part of a year following Snape around. Harry began to chop up some plant roots as his book instructed while Malfoy, watched. Half way through the lesson something was very wrong with Harrys potion. Not only was it not a light purple colour as it should be, but the murky grey liquid had begun to smoke.

"Potter, are you trying to kill everyone? Your supposed to put the rats tail in after the eyes of a newt! Now you've messed up my cure!" Malfoy announced in disgust; but there was something different about the tone of his voice, as if Malfoy couldn't quite put enough effort in to make it sound cruel. Harry realised he wasn't really paying attention to his potion at all, but was watching Malfoy make his cure. He had to admit, Malfoy had a certain elegance to the way he added ingredients to his caldron. Harry still didn't know what was wrong with Malfoy; to him it felt like Malfoy's heart just wasn't into making Harry's life miserable anymore.

By the end of the lesson, Harry had managed to make the potion turn the correct colour, but it was still smoking lightly. Malfoy's potion on the other hand looked clear and calm just like it was meant to. "You're actually not that bad at potions Malfoy." Harry commented.

"Was that a compliment Potter? One I will not be returning, by the looks of your steaming mess." Malfoy, cleared his stuff away and left before Harry had the chance to reply.

Back in the Gryffindor common room, Harry told Ron and Hermione everything that had happened with Malfoy before they left to go to lessons.

"He is acting a bit strange this year isn't he?" Harry asked the two of them.

"I dunno Harry, he still looks like a slimy git to me," Ron offered as he shoved books into his bag. "But then you've spent more time with him than I have."

"I agree with Ron, Harry, just ignore it" Hermione added.

That was the end of the conversation. Hermione and Ron gave him a small smile and left the common room, leaving Harry to mull over his first lesson of the day. He went up to his room and sat on the bed. Once again he was left with questions and no answers, but what really shocked Harry (which he didn't tell Ron and hermione) was how nice he was to Malfoy. Before the battle he despised Malfoy for following Voldemort and for hating Harry, but since the battle, all of the Malfoy's seemed to change. Narcissa actually helped Harry towards the end, saving him from death; not only that but they stopped any part they had in the destruction of Hogwarts and left. That to Harry meant that they could potentially change for the better. Maybe that was why Harry had complimented him, even though Malfoy was a complete ass. Harry decided that he was going to pay closer attention to Malfoy; he had to be up to something. The last time he acted this sketchy was when he kept going to the room of requirement to fix up that stupid vanishing cabinet, so Harry planned to do everything he could to make Malfoy tell him what he was up to; no matter the consequences.

…

The next day, Harry Ron and Hermione were in Transfiguration attempting to silently turn their chairs into a four legged table. While they did this, Harry told the others his plan to find out what Malfoy was up to.

"Oh Harry, can't you just have one normal year at Hogwarts? Let him do what he wants, he's no threat to us anymore." Hermione countered.

"Yea, now his precious leader is dead he has no one to turn to! Even _Pansy Parkinson_ saw how pathetic he was, turns out she dumped him a few weeks ago! Can you imagine?" Ron burst out laughing, which hastily turned into a hacking cough as Professor Mcgonagall looked over with a stern look.

As she came over, all three of them turned to their chairs once more forgetting their conversation. "And how are you three getting along? I assume you have all successfully managed to transfigure your chairs into tables from all of the chatter I can hear?"

"Sorry Professor." Ron mumbled and he continued to work.

Before Mcgonagall walked away she turned to Harry: "Potter, don't forget, you have Quidditch trials coming up this Saturday. I'm counting on you to give us a winning team!"

"Yes Professor," he replied, returning to his work.

…..

The next day in potions, Harry decided that the best thing to do was to just confront Malfoy on why he was being so odd. So midway into their lesson he turned to Malfoy and said: "Why are you being so weird?"

Malfoy looked at Harry with a surprised look on his face. "What are you on about Potter?"

"You hate me, and yet you helped me up on the train, then you insult me in potions. Now, you haven't said one rude or demeaning thing to me since I walked in. What is going on with you?" Harry returned to his work. After getting everything he was feeling off of his chest he felt a little depleted.

Malfoy just looked at him, as if he were torn between telling the truth, and putting Harry in his place. As Harry waited for Malfoy to reply he saw the boys shoulders sag, and he brushed some blond hair out of his eyes. This was such weird behaviour for him; Malfoy never gave up so easily.

"I'm done Potter. I just can't be bothered to annoy you any more. I guess your just not very important now, time for me to move on and focus on other things. Like potions." He said the last part so sarcastically, Harry caught a glimpse of Malfoy's old self.

Well, the reply Harry got wasn't exactly what he had expected but it was an answer nonetheless. Harry decided that for now, he would leave the situation alone. At least he could be safe in the knowledge that he wasn't going to be bullied by Malfoy as much as usual. That was something right? Finally he settled down and paid attention to the lesson.


	4. Chapter 4 - Quidditch

**Reviews are much appreciated! :)**

 **Chapter 4** \- Quidditch

Saturday morning dawned bright and early. The first week of Hogwarts had passed relatively quickly according to Harry, now that he was able to focus on his studies. Harry noticed that he had been seeing less and less of Hermione and Ron recently, partly because Harry wasn't in many of their lessons, so their free periods no longer matched, but also because they kept wanting to spend quality time together: without Harry. This meant that he had a lot more time to do homework, and unfortunately more time to think about Malfoy. Their Potions classes together so far had passed without an accident, sometimes, they even managed a small conversation before one of them, usually Harry ruined it and made a rude or sarcastic remark, which was rewarded with silence. Now as he got ready for his Quidditch trials, all of these thoughts vanished as he started to think about having to see Ginny again. The last time they bumped into each other, it didn't go well, so Harry hoped they could be civil towards one another.

A crash from the bed next to Harry awoke him from his thoughts. Ron had awoken.

"Hurry up Ron, trials are in an hour and you haven't had breakfast yet! I'll meet you in the great hall." Harry yelled as he walked to the door.

The reply he heard as he left sounded like "Bleurgghh" which made Harry chuckle as he made his way towards the great hall.

Saying hi to Hermione as he sat down, he dove into the massive bowls of food, scooping up scrambled eggs, and several pieces of toast. When he had finished, he turned to Hermione, "Are you coming to watch the trials then?"

"Yes, I had planned to, I want to cheer Ron on." Hermione answered.

"And hopefully there will be no confundus charms today…" Harry said with a sly grin as he downed his pumpkin juice. He got the reaction he wanted: Hermione's face turned bright red as she recalled the last trials she went to, when she used the confundus charm on Cormac McLaggen so Ron would become keeper.

"That, was a one off, and is not to be repeated to Ron, do you understand?" she Huffed.

Harry laughed some more, and then spotted Ron coming into the hall.

"Hey, Ron how are you feeling?" Hermione asked.

Ron looked up, a pale almost queasy expression on his face. "I don't think I can do it Harry!" He sat down slowly and banged his head on the table.

"Ron Weasly, how many times do we have to say this. You are the best keeper we have! I'm not going to let a couple of nerves stop you from doing something you love. You helped end the great war for gods sake! If you can do that then you can make it through this stupid trial." Then looking at Ron's face Harry added, "Now quit complaining and eat your breakfast we're walking down in ten minutes."

The authority in Harry's voice almost snapped Ron out of his daze, enough to make him eat some food at least. Once they were all ready they headed down to the Quidditch field, where Harry began to set up for the trials. Soon after they arrived, some of his old team turned up in their gear, along with some others that didn't make the team before. As well as this, the stands started filling up; Harry saw Hermione on the front row, a few Hufflepuff 3rd years behind her, and behind them… What was Malfoy doing at Gryffindors Quidditch trials? Not for the first time Harry wondered what he was up to. However, as more people showed up fro the trial, Harry had to snap out of his daze, so he put all thoughts of Malfoy to one side for the time being.

Turning back to the large group of people, Harry began to get their attention. "Okay guys, can I have everyones attention please? Could I ask everyone so split in to groups, Chasers to the left, beaters in the middle, and keepers to the right?"

Once Harry had got them organised he began to set up games; he had already planned to keep Ginny on as a chaser, as she was the best player in the team he had before, so before they got started he pulled her to one side. "Right, so you're going to be my second in command, okay? When your up in the air, keep an eye out for any good players and i'll talk through them with you at the end."

Ginny looked up at him with her big sad eyes, and a hint of anger, "Harry, you're not doing this to try and get me back are you? Because it's not going to work. I may as well be on the same level as everyone else."

For the second time this week Harry felt an invisible hand slap him round the face. In a clear, calm voice, Harry replied, "I'm asking you to do this because you were the best chaser we had in the last team, and I trust your judgement. Don't for a second think that i'm playing favourites to try and win you back. If you think I would do that then you obviously don't know me very well. So get up there and find me some good players." Without realising, Harry's voice had risen to a shout, so quite a few people were now looking at them. Great! As an after thought, Harry peered around to look at the stands, yep everyone was looking at him, including Hermione, and Malfoy. Kicking himself for being such an idiot he walked away leaving Ginny stunned.

"Okay everyone, I'm going to release the bludgers so be careful, can the first team please take their places in the air." As the first team rose up, the rest of the group moved to the side of the field to watch out of the way. Harry let the bludgers fly, then took out the large quaffle. "Okay, ready… GO!" Harry threw the quaffle into the air and flew up past the team to watch from above. He watched them play for a while but knew that none of them were good enough to make the team, so after a while his eyes began to wonder, across the stands, to where Malfoy sat watching the game… no, watching Harry. He flew a bit closer to see more clearly, but, yes, Malfoy was definitely watching him. Quick as lighting, at soon as he flew closer Malfoy whipped his head away and turned to look at the other players. Did Harry dream it? Everything happened so fast. Before he could contemplate further, he noticed Ginny a little way away signalling for Harry to end the game. So he blew the whistle, and everyone flew down to the ground. "Thank you for coming you guys, i'll let you know if you've been successful or not." With that, they left the field.

This carried on with two more groups until eventually it was Ron's turn. So Harry started the game by throwing the quaffle into the air, and they were off, Ginny took the quaffle, and passed it to a 5th year, who immediately had it snatched by Dean Thomas, who flew over to the goal posts and chucked it into the left hoop. It very nearly went in, when out of nowhere Ron burst up from under the hoop stopping the ball in its path. 'YES!' Thought Harry, 1 down 5 to go, slightly worried. Harry however, had no need to worry. Ron flew like he had never flown before, he didn't miss one goal, and some of them were spectacular saves. By the end of the trials Harry and Ginny, put together their thoughts and came up with a full team, including Ginny, Dean and a 6th year as the chasers, two 5th year boys for the beaters, and Ron as keeper, with Harry, maintaining his seeker position. Thanking everyone, he began to leave the field.

On his way back to the castle, Harry bumped into Malfoy exiting the stands.

"Oi Malfoy, why were you watching our trials?" What Harry really meant though, was 'why were you watching me?'

Malfoy was like a deer caught in some headlights. His eyes were wide and the two pink spots on his cheeks were back, but again, not for long, which made harry think it must have been a trick of the light. "Well, your competition aren't you? I wanted to know what your team was like. It's not a crime!" Malfoy stalked away before Harry had a chance to reply.

That actually made a lot of sense, though it didn't explain why he was watching Harry. He decided to forget about it, just as Ginny and Ron came up behind him.

"What was Malfoy doing watching our trials?" Ron asked in a disgusted voice.

"Wanted to scope out the competition apparently." Harry replied.

"Huh," Ron said, "Makes sense I guess, come on, I wanna go find Hermione before dinner.

When Harry got back to the common room, He pinned up his new Quidditch team on the notice board, then made his way down to the great hall for some food. As he sat down, Hermione looked around her before leaning in and whispering, "Harry, what is going on with you and Ginny, you know everyone heard you arguing at the trials." Harry had told Ron and Hermione that Ginny had ended things between them about a week after it happened. Ron went on a rampage, yelling at her, then ignored her for days. Whereas Hermione took a more delicate approach, trying to coax some information out of Ginny as to why she ended it, with no luck.

"She's changed. Ever since Fred's funeral, she's been more closed, won't let anyone in. I didn't mean to talk so loud, she just said some things that really annoyed me." Harry looked down at his plate. He had lost his appetite all of a sudden. Thinking about Ginny just made him sad.

Spotting Ginny entering the hall Hermione quickly whispered, "Well sort it out, you really don't want your personal life turned into gossip for the lower years." She leaned back just as Ginny sat down next the her.

"Whats going on guys?" Everyone looked down at their food, including Harry.

…

When Harry got back up to his room, he laid down on his bed. Ron came up shortly after.

"I'm really sorry about Ginny mate" Ron said as he sat on his bed.

"Yea, me too." The pain of losing Ginny was getting smaller and smaller, which made it easier to be around her.

"I seriously thought you guys were the real deal, Hermione too. I caught her looking up brides maids dresses once. I'm hoping it was intended for your wedding." Harry could see Ron pale significantly.

Harry laughed, "Don't worry Ron, you still have a long way to go with Hermione. I on the other hand need to move forward, and focus on other things, like how well you did today! Good job mate!"

Ron looking chuffed got into bed. "I remembered what you said about the great battle. I thought to myself, if I can defeat some of the worst wizards of all time, then I can sure as hell play some good Quidditch."

Smiling, Harry, laid down in his own bed. "I'm glad it worked out for you, now keep those thoughts and use them for our first match against Slytherin, okay?"

"Right" Ron mumbled before beginning to snore softly.

Harry lay there for a while thinking about the day that he'd had. Just as he was about to doze off, a thought occurred to him.

'Malfoy doesn't even play Quidditch any more!' Harry thought, 'So why the hell was he scoping out someone else competition?' This thought caused Harry to have a very fitful nights sleep, but when he awoke in the morning, all thoughts of Malfoy, had disappeared.


	5. Chapter 5 - Secrets and lies

**So I realise that I have been updating my story a lot these past few days so, from now on i'm going to slow down a bit, so don't worry if I don't post for a while.**

 **In response to a review I got today, I completely understand wanting to speed the story up a bit, I definitely want things between Harry and Draco to intensify, I just want to make sure that its realistic with the way i'm portraying the characters. So read this chapter and see what you think. I'm always up for suggestions and comments, so please do write a review. Enjoy.**

 **Chapter 5 -** Secrets and lies

As time went on Harry looked forward to potions classes more and more. Harry wouldn't exactly call himself and Malfoy friends, but they did have a sort of truce. They could manage a small conversation together before Malfoy became unbearably, well, Malfoy, and Harry would have to leave him alone. Furthermore, now whenever they passed in a corridor, they had begun to nod their heads towards each other, almost like a greeting. Hermione had begun to notice that the air had shifted slightly with regard to them both. So, one day before his Potions lesson, Hermione confronted him alone away from everyone else.

"Harry, what exactly is going on between you and Malfoy? You seem almost civil with each other now.

For some unknown reason Harry's heart began to beat faster. "I honestly don't know Hermione, he's been acting so weird recently. But he is definitely getting better at being less of an ass, although I do have to get away from him sometimes. At least i'm not dreading potions as much as I was." Harry decided that it was time to tell hermione part of the truth, just to get her off of his case a bit.

"Well, okay Harry, just be careful, I still don't think you can trust him. But for gods sake, do not repeat this to Ron. He still loathes Malfoy, and if he even suspects that you're growing soft, there'll be hell to pay!" Hermione warned him, then left him to finish getting ready. Harry decided that Hermione was probably right, so he thought to himself 'from now on i'll keep my questions and feelings about Malfoy to myself' Just to avoid any arguments.

…

Walking in to Potions, his last lesson for the day, Harry started walking to the back of the class room ready to greet Malfoy as usual, when he noticed that something was wrong. As he stepped closer he could see that his usual pale face was even paler if that were even possible, and Harry noticed that Malfoy's hands shook slightly as he clutched a small piece of parchment tightly. Harry took another step forward, just in Malfoy's eye sight, immediately, the parchment was gone, hidden inside his bag probably, his face had changed from almost white to a soft pink, probably due to Harry catching him off guard. This change happened so quickly that Harry thought he might have been dreaming, though Malfoy's hands still shook slightly.

Coming up to his seat, Harry turned to Malfoy, "Are you alright Malfoy, you look like you've seen a ghost?" Harry tried to make him self sound light and sarcastic, but Malfoy did not reciprocate the way Harry had hoped.

"I'm fine!" He snapped, but Harry could tell that he was anything but fine.

"What was that piece of parchment you had in your hands?" Once again he went for airy and slightly curious.

"None of your damn business Potter! Now leave me alone!" Malfoy, with an angered and pained expression on his face dragged his bag over to the next table and moved as far away from Harry as he could.

During the lesson, Harry could not concentrate. All lesson he thought about what Malfoy had said. Why was he this upset over Malfoy? That never happened? Harry was slowly beginning to realise that over the past few weeks, he had actually enjoyed chatting with Malfoy, even if their conversations were filled with sarcasm and sometimes rudeness. His mind also wondered to that piece of parchment; what was it? Why was Malfoy so shaken by it? Why didn't he want Harry to know? By the end of the lesson, Harry was left with one putrid mess in his cauldron, and a plan. He was going to follow Draco for the rest of the evening under his invisibility cloak to see what he was up to once and for all.

When the lesson finally finished, as Harry predicted, Malfoy was the first one out of the door, closely followed by Harry. Quickly Harry ducked behind a tapestry and got out his invisibility cloak. Walking back into the corridor, he looked around for Malfoy and just spotted him turning the corner. Harry had a very difficult time navigating his way through all of the students wandering around, and on several occasions nearly lost sight of Malfoy. However the longer Harry followed him, the less crowded the corridors became. Malfoy, it seemed headed straight for the Slytherin common room, but Harry didn't dare go inside, so he waited outside the entrance to the dungeons, silently hoping that Malfoy would reappear. After ten minutes Harry got his wish. Malfoy rushed out of the dungeons, and headed for the stairs; the way he was acting seemed very strange to Harry. Usually Malfoy walked around the castle as if he owned the place, but now, he seemed almost frightened. His pale blue eyes were open wide, and his wand was out in front of him. 'Something was very wrong' Harry thought. After several flights of stairs Harry realised where they were headed: The room of requirement. What was Malfoy doing? Harry saw the tall blond boy, walk up to the wall, then pace back and forth three times. Slowly, Harry could see a magnificent door emerging from the wall. Once it had appeared completely Malfoy hauled it open and stepped inside. Seizing his chance, Harry raced to the door, and managed to squeeze through before it shut.

Looking around, Harry could see that they were in the room where people over centuries had hidden things. Harry remembered when this room was piled high with random objects, he would always have to be careful not to get lost. Now, the sight that met Harry's eyes was a very different one. The last time he had been in that room, a fire had raged through the place, burning everything to the ground. This was where Harry had found the lost diadem, one of Voldemort's horcruxes. Harry felt overwhelmed with feelings, tears stung his eyes as he remembered the great battle, and he forced himself not to sob out loud.

Recovering, from his momentary lapse, Harry continued to follow Malfoy through the winding piles of ash until Malfoy stopped at a place where the fire had caused the least damage. Taking out the piece of parchment, he looked through it one more time. Harry could sense that whatever was on that parchment was bad. Enough to frighten, a boy who so rarely showed any feelings. Creeping closer, Harry tried to read what it said.

He moved closer,

and closer.

Harry could almost make out the first word…

CLANG!

Without realising, Harry had kicked a metal pot lying on the floor. Inwardly cursing Harry slowly looked up, to find Malfoy, wand out and raised…

Inches from Harry's Heart.

 **So i'm leaving this chapter on a bit of a cliff hanger (sorry to everyone reading this who doesn't know whats going to happen) Please review! I loving hearing everyones thoughts :)**


	6. Chapter 6 - The Altercation

**A/N: Hey guys, i'm back with another chapter. I honestly loved writing this chapter, so please tell me what you think. I know the story is going slowly but hang in there. Hopefully When things between Harry and Draco become more serious it will be worth the wait. I always think the thrill is in the chase. Once their together, the story loses its interest. So enjoys, reviews very welcome.**

 **Disclaimer: I thought I should add, This story in no way belongs to me. the characters all belong to JK Rowling, I am only manipulating the story, i'm not getting any money from this.**

 **...**

 **Chapter 6** \- The altercation

Harry Froze.

Holding his breath, he waited for the curses and hexes to come flying at him. Stupid, he thought to himself, he was so stupid to try and follow Malfoy after everything they had been through. A thought popped into his head as he stared up at Malfoy's murderous face; no one knew he was there, he could die and no one would know. But that thought was quickly squashed down, Malfoy had changed, the war between good and evil was over. As Harry waited he saw Malfoy's expression morph into a confused look, before he slowly turned back around.

'Of Course!' Harry thought. He was wearing his invisibility cloak. To Malfoy, the noise happened all by its self. Harry let out a shaky breath. He looked down, he had unconsciously taken his wand from his pocket and was holding it out in defence. However as he looked at it, the next second it had disappeared from his grasp. At the same time, his cloak was thrown off of him and landed in a heap to the right of him. Looking back up he saw Malfoy standing a few feet away, holding Harry's wand, and he was back to the murderous expression as he watched Harry. Not knowing what to do Harry just stood there, his heart beating faster and faster by the second. He had no wand, no back up, and no chance of escaping. His mind furiously tried to think up away to make it out of the situation alive, while his body was still frozen on the spot. Harry decided that the best option to go for would be the element of surprise, the plan was to jump Malfoy before he had the chance to use his wand, and hopefully get his own wand back in the process.

Harry waited a moment, to prepare himself for what he was about to do, when suddenly Malfoy was in front of him. Feeling slightly dazed, Harry decided that he was really off his game that day. Malfoy brought his right hand up to Harrys face until it connected with Harry's nose. Almost as if it were in slow motion Harry could see Malfoy's fist coming but could do nothing to prevent it, except prepare for the pain. A sickening crunch entered Harry's ears at that moment, he figured his nose must be broken. Warm, sticky blood poured down his face and into his mouth, so all he could taste was his own sweet metallic blood. Stars burst in front of his eyes, as his head spun. Felling dizzy, Harry took several steps back as he waited for the nausea to pass. Why had Malfoy not hexed him? Harry thought, this was so unlike him. Yet again Harry was distracted by his thoughts, and didn't notice Malfoy charging again until he was pulled to the floor with Malfoy pinning him down. This snapped Harry out of his stupor. Grabbing Malfoy's arms, he twisted his body, releasing Malfoy's grip and rocked to one side, throwing Malfoy off and onto the floor where Harry had just been. Now Harry was on top. Malfoy, tried to move but Harry was much more successful in trapping Malfoy's limbs, and so he was stuck. Unfortunately, Malfoy thinking quick on his feet suddenly brought his head up towards Harry and smashed his forehead into Harry's already broken nose. Once again stars burst out in front of Harry's eyes, causing him to go temporarily blind. Harry rolled off of Malfoy and got to his feet warily, he couldn't believe Malfoy was winning this fight! So he shut all thoughts of Malfoy away and just focused on getting one good punch in at least. Malfoy charged at him again, but this time Harry saw it coming and was able to dodge the oncoming arms. Side stepping, he lifted his arm up and punched Malfoy across the jaw.

Harry's victory didn't last long however, because seconds after Harry's punch, Malfoy hooked his leg behind Harry's and whipped them out from underneath him causing him to fall, landing on his back and taking Malfoy with him. Falling on the hard stone floor was bad enough, Harry thought, without a fully grown male in the form of Draco Malfoy on top! As Harry tried to turn around to gain his footing, Malfoy was quicker, and once again succeeded in pinning Harry to the floor.

At once, Harry began to sense his surroundings and all of his questions started flooding back into his memory. Both boys were panting quite heavily now, and Harry's heart was beating faster and faster, though he wasn't sure why. Looking up at Malfoy's face, his expression had turned into a sneer, then, all pretence at a smile dropped away and his bright blue eyes became no more than slits. Malfoy's grip on Harry's arms got tighter.

Then, 'Was it just Harry, or was Malfoy's face getting closer to his?' Harry wasn't sure what to do, or what he could do, so he just laid there looking up at Malfoy's pale pointed face. All at once, Malfoy seemed to go ridged, and a pained look appeared on his face, though Harry hadn't moved. Malfoy looked at Harry as if he were just remembering that Harry was their. Then he began to shake, Harry could feel Malfoy's arms quivering from where he still gripped Harry's arm. Gone was the menacing look; as Harry watched, Malfoy almost looked scared. What was Malfoy so afraid of? Harry decided to shift slightly, to see if he could move out of Malfoy's grasp, though as soon as he moved, Malfoy leaped up off of the floor, stared at Harry a moment longer, then ran away, not looking back until he has reached the door.

Laying on the floor a moment longer, Harry, went thorough everything that had just happened. He decided that he needed to tell someone, so slowly he got up. He was just about to turn away, when he noticed some small pieces of parchment scattered across the floor. Immediately Harry ran over and grabbed them. This is what he had been after in the first place, Harry couldn't believe his luck. He looked down at the first page and began to read:

"DONT BOTHER COMING BACK TO HOGWARTS THIS YEAR, OR YOU'RE A DEAD MAN!"

Harry paled, and looked at the next one:

"CAN'T RELY ON YOUR DEATH EATER PALS NOW MALFOY! BEWARE!

He got a sinking feeling at the pit of his stomach and read the next one:

"CAN'T EVEN TALK TO YOUR LOVER! TOO BAD, WATCH OUT I'M COMING FOR YOU!"

Harry peered at the last piece of parchment feeling sick now, but he knew what it was going to say,

"TICK-TOCK, YOUR TIMES RUNNING OUT MALFOY, WITH NO ONE TO SAVE YOU!"

Time slowed as Harry realised his big mistake. Malfoy was hiding something all right, but it wasn't dangerous, or evil: just a lonely boy scared for his life. Still feeling sick, Harry shoved the pieces of parchment in his back pocket and made his way out of the room of requirement. It was time he went and found Ron and Hermione.

…..

Harry found them in the great hall eating their dinner, he didn't realise that it had gotten so late, the fight with Malfoy had pushed all thoughts of food out of his mind. Sitting down opposite Ron and Hermione, he reached over and grabbed two chicken legs and some potatoes. Harry had already eaten half of his food before he realised Ron and Hermione were staring at him in disbelief.

"What? I was doing something after potions which over ran. I'm here aren't I?" They were still looking at him incredulously, Harry wondered if something had happened to them. " Whats wrong with you guys?"

"Harry… your nose!" Hermione said almost hesitantly, Instantly Harry remembered the fight and how Malfoy had broken his nose, his whole face must be covered with blood. Looking around he could see other people staring at him now, how could he have forgotten? Before, when he entered the hall, so much had been going through his head, he didn't think about his nose but now, it began to throb painfully.

"Oh shit! I forgot about that!" Harry grabbed a napkin and tried to gingerly wipe off some of the blood.

"Bloody hell Harry, How can you forget that your nose is broken? What were you doing?" Ron was still looking at him weirdly.

"I'll tell you guys later but right now, Hermione, help me out will you? Harry pleaded with Hermione who took out her wand and pointed it at Harry's face.

"Episkey!" A loud crack emanated from Harry's nose, and fresh blood began to pour out, however the throbbing slowly stopped making Harry sigh with relief.

"Thanks Hermione!" Mopping up the rest of the blood, Harry chanced a look at thee Slytherin table. Searching through all of the faces, he found the platinum blond mop of hair which he had grown so accustomed to. As per usual, Malfoy wasn't talking to anyone, a scowl planted firmly on his face, however, now he knew what Malfoy was hiding Harry also noticed a hint of panic in his eyes, as they casually flitted across the room. Malfoy's eyes danced across the Gryffindor table and lingered on Harry's for a split second, enough to notice Harry staring at him. The blonds face whipped away, and a deep red flush crept up his pale cheeks, for the rest of dinner Malfoy kept his head right down, ignoring anyone who tried to talk to him, once he was finished, he bolted out the door without saying a word to anyone. Harry thought this was such odd behaviour, but he decided to leave it and focus on what to tell Ron and Hermione. When they had finished eating, they made their way back to Gryffindor common room and collapsed into their usual place around the fire. Harry reached for his wand in his back pocket in order to cast the muffliato charm, so they wouldn't be over heard. This was when Harry realised he no longer had his wand.

His face went pale. "Malfoy still has my wand!" Hermione and Ron snapped their heads up to look at him. Their aghast faces said it all. "Hermione cast the muffliato charm so we can talk freely.

Hermione did so, then she and Ron waited expectantly. So Harry recounted everything that had happened to him that day. Although, he decided to leave out the notes, he wasn't sure why he felt the need to keep it a secret, but clearly Malfoy didn't want people knowing, and Harry could relate to that. A lot. He finished the end of the story and waited for one of them to reply.

"So thats what happened. What should I do?" Harry inquired.

"Well, for starters, you need to get your wand back! When do you next have potions? Hermione asked.

"First period tomorrow, so thats not an issue. I meant about Malfoy acting odd." Harry wanted to see what they thought to all of the secrecy.

"If you ask me mate, i'd say he's up to something, something bad. So be careful around him, yeah? Ron stated a worried look on his face.

"Yes Harry, I know you think he's changed, but I still don't trust him, and after everything we went though last year, I…I just want you to be safe, I couldn't bare it if you were in danger again," Hermione finished. Ron, next to her was nodding furiously in agreement. A surge of love came over Harry, as he realised that both Ron and Hermione were only worried about his safety and nothing else.

"I'll be careful you guys, I promise, I just really want to find out what he's up to. I won't let it take over like last time." Harry hoped that the last part were true. As the three of them settled down by the fire, Harry remembered that he'd left his invisibility cloak in the room of requirement. "I'll be back in a moment you guys, I left my cloak on the 7th floor." Harry left them and made his way back up to the room where everything used to be hidden.

…..

On his way back, he bumped into Ginny Weasley coming out of the great hall.

"Hi Ginny," Harry said, less than enthusiastically. He thought about shoving his cloak on when she wasn't looking, to avoid entering in another awkward conversation.

"Oh. Hey Harry, why was your nose broken at dinner today?" Ginny asked slowly.

"Um, Malfoy and I got into a fight, nothing serious, he was just being a bit of a dick, as usual." Whatever Harry expected after he told Ginny that, it definitely wasn't what Ginny did. She began to laugh, not even a giggle, a full blown laugh. Harry was so astounded he stopped walking and stared at her.

"Sorry Harry, I just found that really funny for some reason, are you alright?" Harry didn't believe her. Her voice took on a concerned tone but her face showed that she was trying her hardest not to laugh, and her eyes had a knowing gleam to them.

"What do you know Ginny? Tell me!" Harry knew that he sounded hurt but at that moment he didn't care.

"Oh Harry, you do need to grow a pair! And you'll find out soon enough, i'm sure." With a wink she sauntered off leaving Harry once again dumfounded. He really needed to try harder to avoid talking to Ginny, as she always left him feeling worse than before.

Arriving back at the common room, Harry had tried to wipe all emotions off of his face, so as not to worry Ron and Hermione. For the rest of the evening, the three of them attempted to get through their mountain of homework, which for Harry was no easy task, as he couldn't stop thinking about what Ginny had told him.

'You'll know soon enough…'

'Know what?' Harry thought. This stayed with him the whole evening, and of course followed him in his dreams that night.

 _There was no escaping them. Malfoy's horrid looks, Ginny's sneer as she turns him down, again, his parents, Sirius, Lupin… Each of them appearing, laughing at him like Ginny did, telling him that he was stupid for not getting it. Making him feel guilty for their deaths. Round and round they went, like a giant whirl pool, slowly sucking Harry in to the centre. They were drowning him, he couldn't breath, he was going to die…_

Harry awoke with a gasp, sweat dripping down his clammy face. He knew it was a dream, but as he got ready for breakfast, the sinking feeling he had stayed with him.

 **...**

 **A/N: So i've definitely turned Ginny into a bitch! Not quite sure how that happened. Finally, a hint of some feelings coming off Draco! I bet you all can guess what happened to him, even if Harry can't! Reviews welcome :)**


	7. Chapter 6 - Draco's Perspective

**Chapter 6.5** \- The Altercation (Draco's Perspective)

 **A/N: I realised that because i'm writing this story in Harry's perspective, there aren't as many feelings as there needs to be for a romance. It can't really be helped much because in this story Harry doesn't have existing feelings for Draco. So I thought it might be nice to do this chapter in Draco's perspective as well to give you an idea of what he is feeling too. Let me know what you think in a review, if you all like it then I might do more extra chapters from his perspective. Enjoy :)**

Draco whipped around, his arm extended with his wand pointing towards the noise, but there was nothing there. Confusion swept over him, he stood there a moment longer waiting for something or someone to jump out at him, but nothing did, so slowly he turned around and looked back at his notes. Just then he heard it. A faint exhale of breath. Then, he remembered Potters annoying habit of following people (especially him) with his invisibility cloak (he had got to get one of those) turning around again, he cast a silent 'Expeliarmus' towards the noise. Draco was rewarded with a wand flying through the air; he caught it, and looked up as Potter's cloak was thrown off of him. Draco was furious. How dare Potter follow him? However, as much as Draco was angry with Harry, he could feel his heart beating faster just from looking at him, with his messy black hair, and deep green eyes which at that point in time, made him look a bit like a deer caught in headlights…

'NO!'

Draco cursed himself for thinking those things, and decided to take it out on Potter, forgetting his two wands, he launched at Potter, punching him straight on the nose, hearing several bones break, he guessed that not only was Potter's nose smashed but a couple of his fingers as well. Brushing aside the pain, Draco grabbed him and tripped him up, pulling both of them to the floor. Draco successfully managed to pin Potter to the ground. Looking at his face, Draco could tell Potter was distracted, he could see all of the stray thoughts running through his head. However, this ended abruptly, when Draco was thrown off and it was Harry on top. Once again, Draco's heart began to beat faster, so much so, he was worried Potter would be able to hear it. Draco did not like being in this position, for a number of reasons, so remembering Potter's broken nose he lashed out with his forehead, crunching it against Potter's nose. This was the right thing to do, as Potter stumbled back allowing Draco enough time to get to his feet. Draco attempted another punch, but as he got closer, Potter side stepped and punched him in the jaw. Pain exploded across Draco's face, although gladly nothing was broken, glancing at Potter, Draco could see that Harry wasn't expecting another attack so soon after that hit, so taking full advantage of Potter's lapse in concentration Draco wrapped his leg around Potters and yanked him to the floor. Draco pinned Harry down again, expecting to say something menacing and threatening, but looking down, he saw Harry's face; covered in sweat, and panting heavily, his beautiful green eyes open wide. His eyebrows were knitted together in what should have been a scared expression, but in reality was more like apprehension. Harry wasn't scared, he was confused.

At once, Draco realised all of his mistakes. He should have hexed Harry rather than fight him like a muggle, it would have cause way more damage, especially since Harry was unarmed; also there was all of this floor time, rather than actually trying to hurt Harry. Of course he was going to be confused, as Draco had been acting weirdly all day. Those stupid notes! Why the hell did Harry have to get involved.

He looked back down at Harry's face. Bad idea. Immediately, he felt all the blood in his body rush downwards towards his groin. Panic stricken, Draco froze, Harry was inches away from discovering Draco's true feelings. The ones that made him hate himself. The ones that made him think he shouldn't have come back in the first place. Harry moved slightly, and that was enough, Draco leaped off of the floor, looked at Harry once more and ran away, hoping that the darkness in the room would hide his body enough.

It was only when he closed the door that he realised two things. One, during the fight he had dropped all of the notes, which Potter was bound to find now, and two, Draco still had Harry's wand. Draco didn't dare go back inside after that mortifying incident so he left the corridor, knowing that sooner or later he had to face Potter, not just to give him back his wand. He knew that Potter would want to talk about those notes. He healed his hand then headed down to the great hall to try and stomach some food; sitting down in between Blaise and Pansy, he put some food on his plate then proceeded to pick at it for the next 20 minutes. He could tell that Pansy was getting annoyed because he kept ignoring her attempt at a conversation. He slowly looked at everyone around him, watched everyone sitting down, how they talked and laughed so easily. His eyes wandered over to the Gryffindor table. How easy must their life be, known to everyone as the hero's of the school. No one hated them. Moving his eyes further down the table he spotted Granger and Weasly, which wasn't hard, Weasly looked like his head was on fire, and Granger had a birds nest for hair. They seemed worried as they talked to the person in front of them, the person with shockingly messy hair, and bright green eyes. The person with blood pouring down their face; the person staring right at Draco.

Draco looked away hurriedly. He could feel his cheeks growing noticeably pink and really hoped that Potter's eyesight was as bad as everyone said.

"Draco, whats wrong, you've hardly eaten anything?" Pansy purred at him. Draco definitely wasn't in the mood.

He wolfed down everything on his plate then, leaped off of the bench and practically ran out of the hall. Once again, Draco was mortified, he just hoped he could control his feelings in the next days potions class, where there really would be no escaping.

 **A/N: Aww Draco! Don't you just love his deepest darkest secret. Reviews welcome.**


	8. Chapter 7 - The Confrontation

**A/N: Hey Guys, sorry this one's a bit late, i've had a busy week. Hope you like it, please review. :)**

 **...**

Chapter 7 - The confrontation

Walking into potions that morning, Harry's heart began to beat faster, and he could feel a swarm of butterflies buzzing around in his stomach. What the hell was he going to say to Malfoy? Clutching the death threats in his hand, he turned into the room and looked up to find Malfoy not there yet. Thinking this was really odd Harry sat down in his usual seat. Malfoy was always there first. Always. Harry began to wonder if he would ever turn up, when just as Slughorn rose to begin, Malfoy rushed in.

"Sorry i'm late professor, got held up" he mumbled as he passed the front and went to sit at the back, as far away from Harry as possible. Harry realised that Malfoy had been late on purpose, knowing him, he probably realised that he never managed to successfully hide those notes, so of course he knew Harry had seen them. By being late Harry would not have a chance to talk to Malfoy before the lesson started. Harry hoped that this lesson they would be left to work by them selves, unfortunately, Slughorn had other plans. For the whole lesson Harry didn't have one chance to speak to Malfoy. As time drew on Harry became more and more frustrated, which lead him to miss important details from what Slughorn was saying. If Harry didn't sort this out soon, he was going to fail Potions. As the lesson went on, Harry peered over at Malfoy, he was in exactly the same position as he had been when the lesson started, slightly turned away from Harry's direction, his back impossibly straight, leaning slightly over the table where he sat writing notes. Looking up at his face, Harry could see Malfoy's look of concentration as he tried his hardest to focus on his work. His bleach blond hair, now slightly too long, tumbled down each side of his face, falling into his eyes constantly, which meant he was always brushing it away. Harry had the weirdest thought that his hair like that made him look ruggedly handsome. Harry imagined leaning over and tucking that luscious blond lock back behind his ear, he could almost feel himself moving, when a particularly loud noise sounded from the front. Someone had dropped their quill, thank god for that, Harry had no idea what had just happened but he didn't like it. The noise from the front, also managed to snap Malfoy out of his concentration, as he looked around, he suddenly caught Harry watching him. Malfoy snapped back to his work, with doubled vigour, at the same time Harry could see a deep pink flush creep up the side of his neck. This was unlike Malfoy, he thought, getting embarrassed at someone staring at him, Malfoy loved attention. Harry could not figure it out, and in the end decided to continue with his work.

Near the end of the lesson, Harry had come up with a plan to talk to Malfoy, to ensure that he finally got some answers, he just hoped that it would work. Slughorn, eventually finished speaking and allowed everyone to pack up, Harry and Malfoy had already put their things away and were waiting to be let out. Immediately, Malfoy was up and walking rather quickly to the door, but Harry was close behind him. Malfoy rounded the corner, and went up the stairs, passing a long tapestry. Just as he reached the end Harry grabbed Malfoy by the waist, and hauled him behind the tapestry, where Harry knew their was a hidden passage way. Forcing Malfoy through, Harry came after and blocked off the entrance, so there was no way to escape. Although as he stood there, it didn't enter his mind that Malfoy had in his possession two wands, whereas Harry had none.

"POTTER! What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?" Malfoy raged as he attempted to realign his uniform.

"I want answers Malfoy. You made sure that I wouldn't get any during that lesson, so i'm not letting you go until I get some now." Harry stood their, arms folded across his chest, staring straight at Malfoy, waiting expectantly for a reply.

"Leave me alone Potter, I don't want you to get involved, it's my business." Harry had the weirdest feeling that Malfoy somehow didn't quite believe what he was saying. He didn't look at Harry as he said this, and he began to fidget, a rarity in the Malfoy household Harry was sure.

Sensing an opportunity, Harry decided to press a little harder, "I found the death threats Malfoy, you didn't do a very good job of hiding them. What happened? One of your victims finally had enough of your bullying….

"Potter, leave it…" Malfoy snarled.

Harry pushed further, "Or maybe a scorned lover, out to seek revenge,"

"Harry, please stop!"

That froze Harry in his tracks. Malfoy had never called Harry by his first name. Peering more closely at Malfoy, Harry could now see how pale he had gotten, his bright blue eyes rimmed with dark bags, from where he hadn't slept. An ice cold feeling swept through his veins. Malfoy was terrified.

"You don't know who these are from do you?" Harry questioned, a lot gentler than before. He watched as Malfoy slowly moved his gaze to stare into Harry's eyes. His gaze reminded Harry of a cat, as it's introduced to a stranger. Very cautious, but with a hint of curiosity.

"I told you, I don't want to talk about it." Malfoy, said, which much less enthusiasm as before. Harry was so close, to making him crack.

"Malfoy, if you could for one minute stop being a stubborn prick and listen to me. I want to help." Harry finished, still looking at Malfoy. He could tell the second he had won. Malfoy's shoulders dropped, his head drooped, so his hair fell around his eyes. Harry, forced his hands behind his back, just incase he felt the urge to tuck the fallen strands behind Malfoy's ears again.

"No, I don't know who sent them. There, are you happy now Potter?" Harry was far from happy.

Malfoy was by no means Harry's friend, but even Harry could see that he was different. Gone was the arrogant rich kid who bullied everyone in his wake, and openly supported the dark arts. In his place was a darker, broodier shadow of the Malfoy Harry knew. He never saw Malfoy around the corridors anymore, he would always be in his own common room, or in the library. At meal times, he would sit with Pansy and Blaise but he wouldn't engage in conversation. Harry had even begun to enjoy Malfoy's company in potions lessons, so did this boy really deserve to be given death threats? No, Harry was definitely not Happy.

"Let me help you." Harry said suddenly. Malfoy whipped his head up in surprise.

"Potter, i'm warning you, i'm in no mood to joke so leave me alone and get out of my way" Malfoy curled his lip into a sneer.

"I'm being serious Malfoy, I have nothing better to do, and to be honest i'm starting to miss the old Malfoy who couldn't go 5 minutes without insulting me in some way." This last part wasn't strictly true, but Harry thought it might help persuade Malfoy to listen to Harry.

For a long moment, Malfoy looked up at Harry, as if trying to see what Harry was up to, after a while, he resolved.

"Fine, you can help, but don't go running off to your sidekicks. I do not want this to get out. I mean it Potter. Keep your mouth shut!" Malfoy, became very serious and Harry did not bother to argue. Harry help up his hands in submission, and a small smile played in his lips.

"My lips are sealed." Harry mimed zipping up his lips, then put his hands into his pockets. All of a sudden, now the problem had been sorted, they both realised that they were still behind the tapestry, in quite a small space, where no one could see them. Malfoy's cheeks once again turned a bright pink, and Harry began to shuffle his feet.

"Can I go now Potter, or do you intend to keep me here forever?" Malfoy said this very lazily. Harry moved back against the wall to leave a small gap for Malfoy to squeeze passed. Looking faintly displeased, Malfoy walked over, and moving sideways, shimmied his body through the tight gap. It was so small that Malfoy couldn't help but slide up against Harry's body, at one point they were nose to nose, their chests pressed against each other, Malfoy's breathing had become rapid and uneven. With a final push, Malfoy had escaped Harry, and now moved towards the hole in the wall. Just before he disappeared, Malfoy turned back to look at Harry.

"Oh, by the way, you might need this." Malfoy, reached into his pocket and revealed Harry's wand, he chucked it over to Harry, who caught it. Harry was astonished, he had completely forgotten that Malfoy had his wand. Malfoy left then, snickering at Harry's shocked face.

Harry couldn't believe what he had just done. Kidnapped Malfoy, forced the two of them to be alone together for a long period of time, where Harry on a number of occasions tried to make him angry. However, not once did it occur to Harry that by putting himself in that situation, Malfoy could have hexed him, jinxed him, even cursed him, and no one would know. Harry focused hard on this revelation. He didn't move for several minutes, still in shock from what he had realised, or so he told him self. Deep down though, he still couldn't forget, how where Draco's chest had touched his, there was a warm burning sensation spreading across his chest, that heated up his entire body, as if he were filled with electricity. Slowly his senses returned to him, and he slowly made his way to the opening. Stashing his wand in his robes, he climbed out from behind the tapestry, and made his way towards the Gryffindor common room. Harry silently hoped Ron and Hermione had lessons, as he didn't want to explain where he had been for the past half an hour. Trudging along the corridor, Harry began to think over everything he had learned.

…..

Harry, climbed through the portrait hole and into the common room, and immediately stumbled across Ron. Great.

"Hey mate, where've you been, I was just going to look for you?" Ron asked, he looked flushed, as though he had just gone for a jog outside. More likely, him and Hermione had been together whilst Harry was in Potions.

"I was just in the library, Slughorn, spent the entire lesson droning on about some new potion we have to make, I figured I better actually find out what the potion was. " This wasn't technically a lie but wasn't really the truth either. Slughorn had mentioned a new potion, but Harry didn't care what it was. This answer though seemed to satisfy Ron, as he sat back down on a sofa, and promptly dozed off. Harry carried on to his room, and sat down on the bed. He then pulled out all of the death threats and looked them over again. The same question kept bugging Harry, why would someone want Malfoy dead? Harry decided that in order to figure out who was sending the notes, he needed to figure out what he had done to cause so much pain. Harry could tell that their next conversation wasn't going to be very pretty but unfortunately it was all Harry had to go on.

Instinctively, Harry got out the marauders map, muttering under his breath he said "I solemnly swear that i'm up to no good." Instantly, Harry could see the outline of Hogwarts appearing on the parchment. A few seconds later the map was complete. Harry looked over the map until he found what he was looking for. Over by the dungeons, where the Slytherin common room was, Harry could see Malfoy pacing up and down. There was no one else in the common room, so he wasn't talking to anyone, just thinking Harry decided. Putting the map away, Harry thought that he would forget about Malfoy for a while and focus on his work. So grudgingly, he went back down stairs and sat opposite Ron. Waking him up with a tickling charm, they both settled down to work, Ron occasionally jerking to the side where the tickling jinx had yet to wear off. Safe to say, Ron was not very happy with Harry.


	9. Chapter 8 - The Room of Requirement

**A/N: Hey Guys, sorry this is so late, I know you want me to update more frequently, i'll try my hardest to put them up sooner. I've been so busy this week. This chapter is a lot longer than usual, let me know if its too long, I wasn't sure if i was taking too long to get to the point. Anyway, have a read, and post a review :)**

 **Chapter 8 - The Room of Requirement**

At dinner later that day, Harry, Ron and Hermione weren't speaking as they ate their food. Ron was still sulking over Harry's tickling jinx and Hermione had her head buried in a muggle studies text book. This left Harry to survey the hall and think about everything that had happened that day. He could not believe that he had been dumb enough to be in Malfoy's presence for a long period of time without his wand. However it wasn't this thought that gave Harry a weird tingling sensation in his chest, but the thought that Malfoy didn't once attempt to threaten Harry with his wand. What was wrong with him? Harry had kidnapped the blond Slytherin boy for gods sake, and yet he did not try to defend himself in the slightest. Harry looked over at the Slytherin table at this point. He could see Malfoy sullen as ever, picking at his food while trying to ignore Pansy next to him. Peering more closely, Harry could just about tell that Malfoy's facial expression was slightly less down cast as usual. In fact, Harry would describe it more as pensive. Of course that made a lot of sense. Harry had given him a lot to think about, but it looked like he might actually be happy that Harry had interfered. This made Harry feel much happier inside knowing that he wasn't embarking along this ridiculously difficult journey for nothing. As he stared, Harry saw Malfoy glance up and look over to the Gryffindor table right where Harry was seated. Malfoy, began to blush again, as he realised Harry had been staring at him, Harry merely replied with a smirk, to show Malfoy that he didn't care that he had been caught out.

"What are you smiling at Harry? Hermione said, glancing up from her book.

Hastily Harry looked away. "Oh, nothing, just thinking. How's the homework coming along?

"Oh this isn't homework, i'm trying to read ahead so I understand the next lesson" Hermione shut her book and returned it to her bag.

"Right." Harry couldn't think of anything to say. Ron was still sitting moodily next to Hermione. "Ron you can't seriously be mad. It was a joke, I was lightning the mood." Harry could see Ron muttering curses under his breath, but as he watched he could see the angry expression on Ron's face morph into a more pleasant half smile.

"I guess. Just don't do it again! You know I hate being tickled!" Now that Ron had started talking again the three chattered away for the next few minutes, until Ron brought up a certain blond haired wizard.

"Oi, Harry, whats up with Malfoy then? Why's he acting so weird?" Harry's stomach dropped like a stone. For weeks, Harry had been trying to get Hermione and Ron to help him discover what Malfoy was up to, to no avail, only for them to suddenly take an interest in the subject just as Harry no longer wanted them to help. His friends had the worst timing.

"Dunno, but whatever it is he's become a right moody git, we barely speak in potions." This seemed to satisfy Ron but Hermione ventured further.

"So he's not still being weird and acting nice to you? Thats what you said at the beginning of the year, right?"

Harry had to think on his feet, fast. "Um, no, after a few weeks he dropped all pretence and went back to being his usual pig of a self. I guess trying to act a good guy was just too difficult for him!"

This was definitely the right thing to say, for Ron and Hermione both started laughing. Harry chanced a glance at Malfoy again. He was watching Harry and his friends with a curious gleam in is eyes, almost as if he knew that Harry were talking about him. He decided to ignore this however, as he already had too much to worry about. Turning back to the conversation he found that Ron and Hermione had changed the subject completely, much to Harry's relief. If he had to keep lying to his friends like this, he would go mad.

…..

The next morning, Harry awoke and made his way down to breakfast where he chowed down on several pieces of toast before looking up to see who was around him. At some point, Hermione had joined him, and he could already see Ron slowly making his way down the table. It was Friday morning, so one more day of lessons before the weekend where he could relax and focus on more important things than school work, like quidditch. As he greeted them both, a screech echoed around the hall signalling the morning post. Harry glanced up and was surprised when he saw his snowy white owl Hedwig, soaring down to the tables with all of the other owls. With another small screech, Hedwig landed on the table right in front of Harry, holding a small scroll in her beak. Harry's right hand automatically came up to stroke the owl whilst the left hand took the scroll from her beak. Turning it over, he saw a small scrawled not on the edge of the scroll in small thin green ink which said

'Only open when you are alone.'

Quickly Harry pocketed the scroll before anyone saw what it said and looked over at the Slytherin table. Malfoy was sat there looking at Harry, he could just about make out a tiny nod from Malfoy before he got up and left the hall. This confirmed what Harry had suspected, the note was from Malfoy. He turned back around to find Ron and Hermione waiting expectantly.

" It's from a Random witch in Ireland, wanting to meet 'The boy who lived' Pretty pathetic really. With that, Harry got up and made an excuse to go back to his room before lessons started, leaving Ron and Hermione even more confused that they were to begin with. Harry almost fled down the corridors until he had safely made his way into his dorm room. Sitting on his bed, he un-scrolled the note, his heart pounding in his chest as he did so. On the note, scrawled in the centre said:

 _Meet me by the room of requirement at 7 tonight. Don't be seen. Tell no one._

Harry stared at this for a long time, Malfoy was actually letting him help. He thought about this request for a moment, if they were going to be in the room of requirement, then no one would be able to find them. If Malfoy were to try and curse Harry, there would be no one to help him, which could be exactly what Malfoy wants. On the other hand, the last time they were together, Malfoy never once brought out his wand, there must be a reason for that, and Malfoy did say he didn't want anyone to know. Harry decided that trying to understand what Malfoy was up to would never work, so he decided that he would go to the room of requirement at 7, but he would use his invisibility cloak as well, partly so he wouldn't be seen, but also so he could spy on Malfoy a bit.

As soon as he had decided on a plan he heard footsteps clamouring up the stairs, quickly he shoved the note under his pillow and sat up to greet the people approaching. Ron, Seamus, Dean and Neville appeared, all back from breakfast. Dean and Seamus wittering on about something football related, and neville not saying anything, as he picked up his bag and left quickly.

"Why'd you leave breakfast so suddenly Harry?" Ron asked, his voice, was calm and collected, like he didn't care about the answer, but his face betrayed him. Ron looked anxious.

"I remembered, I forgot to finish Mcgonagall's Essay, you know she hates it when it's not finished on time. I just finished it when you lumbered up here." Lying to Ron, was slowing getting easier, and harry wasn't sure if he liked it. Harry could tell Ron believed it, as his face visibly relaxed, and he moved to his bed and began shoving things in his bag. Harry did the same, and once they were done they moved out of their dorm room and out of the common room, making their way to their charms lesson, on the way, they bumped into Hermione who tagged along. Harry watched as Ron pulled Hermione into a hug, wrapping his arms around her waist, pulling her into him. Hermione reciprocated and laced her arms around his neck. The stayed like that for a while, then as they pulled apart, Ron lean down and placed a small kiss on Hermione's lips. Hermione, pretended to be embarrassed by this public display of affection, but Harry could tell, she was loving it. Harry himself however, grew sullen. He was jealous of his best friends' relationship, he had that once with Ginny but now, what was left for him? Arriving At the classroom, Harry walked in and took a seat near the back by the window. He was not in the mood to concentrate today. Instead he looked out of the window, and thought some more about what he would find when he eventually made his way to the room of requirement. Once again, Harry felt butterflies in his stomach, but he had no idea why.

…..

Finally, it was time to meet Malfoy. Harry had been pacing the floor of the common room for the better part of an hour in anticipation. Ron and Hermione had made some excuse to Harry and went off together, probably to find some secluded area of the castle to snog. Now it was 6.30, so Harry gathered up his cloak and slipped out of the portrait entrance. Pulling his cloak around his shoulders, he made his way up to the 7th floor, where he knew the entrance to the room of requirement would be. When he got there, Malfoy wasn't there yet so Harry went to lean against the wall, still under his cloak. The closer it got to 7 the more agitated Harry became, eventually, 10 minutes to 7, Malfoy strolled round the corner, a sneer already planted on his face. Looking around however he saw that Harry wasn't there, and his pretence dropped. Harry could see his shoulders sag, and his smirk fall away. Harry wondered, how this was ever the snarky Malfoy boy whom Harry loathed; what stood there before Harry was a shell of the old Malfoy, and in its place, someone who no longer cared about picking on little kids, got bored go talking to his friends, and most importantly, someone who Harry felt the need to help.

Suddenly Harry didn't feel like spying anymore. He whipped his cloak off, and revealed himself to a very shocked Malfoy.

"What the hell Potter! How long have you been here for?" Malfoy yelled. Harry could see that Malfoy was actually angry, so decided not to taunt Malfoy as much as he wanted.

"A while, long enough to see you walk in." Harry saw Malfoy's eye twitch as he tried to control his temper. "You told me not to be seen, so I was thorough. Come on, we don't have very long. Ron and Hermione will wonder where I am." With that Harry wandered over to the wall and looked at Malfoy expectantly.

Malfoy, looked like he was about to explode, but carefully, he walked over to where Harry stood, then closed his eyes and began to pace up and down, 1, 2, 3 times, and when he opened them, where a plain wall used to be, stood a magnificent door. Malfoy, walked over to it, and pulled the door open. He waited there awkwardly, for Harry to walk in first, then followed behind, closing the door.

As Harry entered, his breath caught. The room had transformed into what Harry could only describe as, the Gryffindor common room. Or near enough, there was a fireplace, with sofas surrounding it, and tables off to one side where people would attempt to do work. The stair case had gone, understandably, but everything else had the same set up. The only main difference that Harry could see was that rather than the usual Red colours Harry was so used to, Everything was green, The carpet, the walls, even the sofas. Harry guessed this was because it was Malfoy who conjured the room. Once Harry had gotten over his initial shock, he moved over to one of the tables and sat down. A few moments later, Malfoy joined him, sitting on the opposite site, facing Harry. Harry looked up at Malfoy, he couldn't be sure but it looked as if Malfoy was a bit green as well.

"Right, shall we get started then?" Harry asked. Malfoy mumbled a reply looking down. To start with, Harry brought out all of the death threats, and laid them out one by one on the table, facing Malfoy.

"Have their been anymore since we last spoke?" Harry was trying very hard to stay professional, but Malfoy kept looking down, mumbling all of his slammed his hands down on the table. "For gods sake Malfoy! I'm trying to help, what is your problem. I know you don't like me helping, so the quicker we find whoever is doing this to you, the quicker you can go back to hating my guts!" Harry finished his rant with a huge exhale of breath. He felt almost exhilarated.

"I don't hate your guts." If Harry hadn't seen Malfoy's lips move, he wouldn't have believed that it had come out of his mouth. Malfoy looked up, his cheeks tinged red. "I'm glad you're helping me, even though it pains me to admit it."

Harry believed him, he could see that Malfoy definitely did not want to have this conversation, but looking at Malfoy, Harry could tell that he meant what he said. All of a sudden, all the hatred Harry had felt towards this boy all seemed meaningless, Harry decided that if they wanted to figure out who was sending these notes, then they would have to try and work together.

"Well, uh, thanks, Malfoy. Come on I meant it when I said we don't have very long, have their been any more death threats?" Harry had relaxed his voice a bit so he sounded less commanding. As he waited, he saw Malfoy draw out two more pieces of parchment, and handed them over to Harry. Malfoy withdrew his hand very quickly. On the first one it said

IT'S NEARLY TIME MALFOY, TIME TO GET WHAT YOU DESERVE!

And the second one said:

YOU DESERVE TO DIE! HARRY SHOULD HAVE KILLED YOU WHEN HE HAD THE CHANCE. WELL, NOW IT'S MY TURN!

The second one made Harry feel sick. Swallowing his feelings, he looked up at Malfoy. "Okay, can you put them in order of when you got them, and tell me when and where they arrived."

Malfoy, began moving the pieces of parchment around on the table, and at the same time, began to speak. "The first one arrived the second day of school, the one about Hogwarts, when i first saw it, i tossed it aside, thinking someone was just trying to be funny, or trying to mess me around because of what happened last year, with you know who," Malfoy glanced up at Harry quickly at the mention of Voldemort, like he thought Harry would be angry, then continued, "But then a few days later another one came, and i started to think, maybe this isn't a joke. The second note was the 'tick tock, your time is running out,' the third one was about me not having my death eater pals. This was the 4th one…" Malfoy pointed to rather that said the note about his 'lover'. Harry wondered who this could mean, but just pointing to it had made Malfoy blush deeply and look down, his blond hair falling over his face to hide it.

Trying to ignore this, Harry carried on, "And then these two came last, the one about me was the last one? When did it arrive?"

Malfoy, slowly composing himself looked back up at Harry, but something was different, there was a pained look in his eyes all of a sudden. "Yes, the one about you was the last one, it came yesterday morning. All of them arrived with the morning post, at random times, some arrived with a week on between, others just a few days."

Harry began to think. It didn't seem like there was a pattern to when they were being sent, but each time they were send via the same method. The morning post. This could mean it was either someone from Hogwarts, and also someone outside of Hogwarts. Harry decided that he would need more information. He gathered up all of the notes and pocketed them, much to Malfoy's horror. "I'm going to look these over when I get back to my dorm, there may be a clue left on them which could tell us who is doing this. For now, can you think of anyone that might want to hurt you? Maybe you did something to someone, said something? Or it could be something your father did before he was sent to Azkaban?"

Once Harry had finished speaking, he could see that Malfoy had gone ridged, his face slightly paler than usual, and his hands were tightly clasped together. "I don't know."

Harry, tried a more gentle approach, this could be really important information and Malfoy decides that now is the time to clam up! "Malfoy, this is important, I really need to know who might want to do this, we still don't know if these are just someone trying to spook you or if they are an actual threat. Please, talk to me."

Malfoy stood up, his face in anguish. "I DON'T KNOW HARRY! You don't understand, I have done so many horrible things, to so many people, Voldemort forced me to, or he'd kill me. I've lost count of how many people I tortured, any one of them could want me dead, and to be honest, I don't blame them. I hate myself for what I had to do to survive, can't you see that?" He pushed his fingers through his silky smooth hair in frustration.

Harry could see it. Malfoy had changed, absolutely, but hearing that made Harry shiver. Malfoy hated himself? What had happened? Harry watched Malfoy for a while, then started to get angry. Angry with Malfoy, angry at the person sending these death threats, but mostly angry and Voldemort, for destroying so many lives, one of those lives belonging to Draco Malfoy.

Harry got up and walked around the table so he was next to Malfoy. "You're such an idiot Draco! Don't you see? You said so your self, Voldemort made you do those things! What sane person wouldn't want to fight for their life, no matter the cost. Yes, they may be horrible, and that pain will never go away, but you have to use that pain to come back and be a better person, like you already have. This time last year there's no way either one of us would have voluntarily been in the same room for this long without one of us ending up on the floor, thats just how we were. I hated you, You hated me. The ministry acquitted you of all charges, they don't do that to just anyone, they must have actually believed that you were not to blame for the things you did. I don't believe your to blame for the things you did. Whatever happened before the war was in the past. This year is about starting fresh, not going back to the old ways. So who ever is doing this to you does not have the right. Which is why i'm here helping you find out who's behind it. No one deserves to die, not even you."

Harry finished his rant, all the fight leaving him. He looked at Malfoy to find him staring at Harry in amazement. Harry wasn't sure but he thought Malfoy looked happy. His eyes had watered up at some point, but Harry didn't know whether that was because he was upset, or whether it was because of what Harry had said.

Harry placed his hands on Malfoy's shoulders and said, "So stop getting upset and lets carry on. We still need more information." Harry did this to try and cheer him up, make him see that Harry wasn't there out of malice, but it had the opposite effect, Harry felt Malfoy tense, his face had gone white as a sheet, and his hands started to tremble. Immediately, Malfoy tore from Harry's grasp and bolted for the door. On his way out he yelled "Got to go, il talk to you tomorrow." And with that he was gone. Harry stood their dumfounded. It was only then he realised that he had suddenly gone cold. When Harry had placed his hands on Malfoy's shoulders a warmth had spread through his entire body. What had happened to Malfoy? Why did he run away? Harry had so many questions, but still no answers. So he gathered up his cloak and made towards the door. Harry would have to forget about Draco's weird behaviour for now. Harry had some death threats to look over.

…..

Back in his dorm, Harry pulled out the death threats. He had been a little over an hour with Malfoy, and dreaded what Ron and Hermione would say when he got back, however, as he entered the common room, he saw that Ron and hermione had not gotten back yet. With a sigh of relief Harry climbed up the stairs. If they asked what he had done, he could say he did some homework. Now as he looked through the notes, he tried to see if he could tell who the person might be. They looked like they had been written on with an ordinary quill and ink, so that lead no where. The parchment its self was completely clean aside from the writing, so Harry decided that the words them selves might prove useful. Harry could tell by the handwriting that the person sending them was male. If Hermione's handwriting was anything to go on girls just didn't have very messy handwriting, and these notes were messy. Harry read them through again, the one about the lover caught his attention though. Who ever wrote these threats, must have had access to Malfoy. This note alone was very personal, not just anyone would know about Malfoy's secret lovers, which could suggest the person was either someone Malfoy talks to frequently out side of school, or the person was in Slytherin.

Harry made a mental note to ask Malfoy about this in the morning, and then decided he should probably do some work. Ron and Hermione wouldn't believe his homework lie, if he was failing his classes. So he settled down to work, and only stopped an hour later, when Ron crept in.

 **A/N: So what did you think? Let me know your thoughts, if you have any questions, or ideas on how the story should proceed let me know :)**


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